Incentive - April 2008 - (Page 20) COVER STORY that are not in the limelight.” Started two years ago in commercial operations, the AZCE program has been adopted by other parts of AstraZeneca, Snow notes. “So that is a sign it is something worthwhile,” he says, adding, “I think it helps limit turnover.” Social Responsibility and Volunteerism AstraZeneca has a number of programs that fall under the umbrella of corporate social responsibility, but far and away the largest is the AZ&Me Prescription Savings program, which provides medicines to people with low incomes (in the U.S., those earning less than 300 percent of the U.S. poverty level) who have no health insurance or cannot afford their medications despite Medicare Part D coverage. A new addition to the program provides medicines through health care facilities. Calculated at the average wholesale cost, AstraZeneca gave away $518 million worth of its products worldwide through AZ&Me in 2007. The company also gave away more than $55 million in direct grants to charitable organizations last year. But beyond that, AstraZeneca U.S. supports and encourages the 75 percent of its employees that volunteer with local community and charitable groups through the AstraZeneca Ambassadors program, says Angela Bourogiannis, senior manager of corporate communication alliances, the department that oversees the program. “Service to the communities in which we operate is ingrained in the corporate culture,” she says. “Not just giving money is very important.” The Ambassadors program has an extensive section on the corporate intranet, including an Ambassadors Club that encourages retired AstraZeneca employees to continue participating. For active employees, much of the direct organization work is done by Ambassador Circle leaders, a group of about 25 employees who have volunteered to take on a coordinating role, working with a particular nonprofit to develop volunteer opportunities. One of those circle leaders is Sandy Merritt, a security supervisor at the Wilmington research and development facility. “I have been involved in some aspect of volunteering for thirty years now,” Merritt says. She manages the Healthcare Heroes knitting group at AstraZeneca and connected them to the cancer center. Now they are knitting knee blankets for patients.” “When the new leadership role presented itself in 2006, I quickly accepted it,” Merritt says. “I get huge personal satisfaction, and it also motivates me to work harder in my day job.” While AstraZeneca tracks the overall performance of programs like Healthcare Heroes, comparing impact with employee hours, it does not track individual employees, Bourogiannis says. As for the value of the program, she notes the company is gaining more than just goodwill in the community. The programs “make employees feel valued and loyal,” Bourogiannis says. “It improves morale.” Besides, she adds, “it is a great way to recruit. It is very important to Gen X and Gen Y. Sometimes it makes or breaks a deal of which company a [prospective] employee goes with.” Work/Life Balance and Diversity Among the ways that AstraZeneca works to keep employees happy is with a strong and proactive focus on work/life balance and diversity. In fact, it does so much we had to put that part of the story on our Web site: www.incentivemag.com/astrazeneca. But, here’s a teaser to whet your appetite for going online: Among the reasons AstraZeneca made the 100 best companies to work for lists of both Working Mother and Fortune are the flexible work arrangements that go far beyond telecommuting. Penny Price, a manager in business communications, has been in a 60-60 job share program for 10 years, an arrangement that lets Price read to her son’s first grade class every Monday and still retain the “interesting and challenging” job she loves. What sort of effect does this arrangement have on Price’s loyalty? Well, you’ll have to go online to read about that, as well as more details about AstraZeneca’s work/life balance and diversity programs. Send comments to ljakobson@incentivemag.com AstraZeneca U.S. CEO Tony Zook looks on as employee volunteers dig flower beds outside Westside Health, a Wilmington, Del., clinic for the uninsured program, which has brought more than 1,000 current and 200 retired AstraZeneca employees to health care facilities in Wilmington, like the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. “Healthcare Heroes varies,” Merritt says. “We have one-time opportunities [like] providing craft kits or doing crafts with patients, or you can volunteer on a weekly basis.” Merritt herself has brought goody bags to patients at another local hospital, the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center. “Certain hard candies alleviate the metallic taste” experienced during chemotherapy, she says. Bourogiannis adds: “Sandy discovered a For more on AstraZeneca, visit INCENTIVEMAG.COM/ASTRAZENECA 20 | Incentive | April 2008 | incentivemag.com http://www.incentivemag.com/astrazeneca http://INCENTIVEMAG.COM/ASTRAZENECA http://incentivemag.com
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